The use of credit card, debit cards, stored values cards, and other means of payment relying on payment account numbers (PANs), as opposed to cash, is ever-increasing among consumers. However, a large portion of the adult population still relies on cash, and may pay almost exclusively in cash at micro/small merchants or at larger merchants, especially in developing countries. These consumers may have unsteady income that may come in tranches (e.g., receiving pay following harvests), and may make dozens of small transactions weekly. These people may be both consumers and merchants, mixing their resources. While these consumers are often not associated with a formal banking institution (“unbanked”), they may participate in informal borrowing and saving. As these consumers are unbanked, they may spend an extraordinary amount of time tracking their funds and “making ends meet.”
The unbanked consumers may live in rural communities and on the outskirts of a major city; they may have a mobile account. While the unbanked consumers may use the mobile account, use of mobile accounts is low and may mainly consist of person to person (P2P) transactions (e.g., they use it only for sending funds to people). Additionally, the unbanked consumers may experience unreliable telecommunications and power every day.
The present inventors have now realized that it may be desirable to provide efficient monetary transaction delivery, storage and tracking to the unbanked.